Staff Profile

Career Summary

Biography

Professor Kypros Kypri is an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow (SRF-B) in alcohol-related injury epidemiology. He was trained in experimental and clinical psychology at the University of NSW, University of Otago, and University of California San Diego from 1994-1998. He completed his PhD in Injury Epidemiology at the University of Otago in 2002. With the input of many colleagues he has established an alcohol research group at the University of Newcastle which is the hub of several national and international collaborative studies. These address a range of methodological, aetiological and intervention studies addressing the burden of injury and disease attributable to alcohol.

Involvement in Scientific Review:

Deputy Editor of Drug and Alcohol Review, an international peer-reviewed journal

Grant Review Panel member, National Health & Medical Research Council

Referee for national granting bodies in Australia, the UK, Netherlands, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Canada

Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Otago - New Zealand, 10/05/2003

Research

Research keywords

Alcohol

Health Behaviour

Public Health

Research expertise

I am a behavioural scientist interested in the influence of the social and physical environmental on drinking behaviour, and in determining the effectiveness of strategies aimed at preventing alcohol-related harm.

I am, or have been, a principal investigator on substantial competitive grants, from government agencies including: New Zealand's Health Research Council and the Alcohol Advisory Council (joint funding of more than NZ$1.5M), the USA's National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (US$253,000), and the Western Australian government agency: Healthway (A$314,000). I was part of a team which won a large contract (NZ$940,000) to implement a national alcohol policing project in New Zealand, and have headed several smaller successful proposals.

I currently lead three international project teams of researchers working on ongoing projects: Modifiable Environmental Determinants of Alcohol-related Harm, Geospatial Aspects of Alcohol-related Harm, and Evaluation of Changes to the Drinking Age. I lead a new Australian project funded by the Hunter Medical Research Institute, and have won several research contracts as a consultant.

My work is reflected in >110 peer-reviewed publications including several invited papers. The papers are published in general medical journals, leading public health journals and high-impact substance use journals. The papers represent several coherent and interrelated areas of research: child and adolescent injury, epidemiology of young peoples drinking, web-based interventions, survey methods, and policy evaluation. They reveal expertise in a range of areas: use of official data, population surveys, intervention development, quasi-experimental study designs, and clinical trials. The clinical trials and survey methods studies have been recognised internationally for their innovation and careful implementation.

I have made significant contributions as a referee for leading journals in his research discipline, as an associate editor of Alcohol and Alcoholism and an executive editorial board member of Drug and Alcohol Review. I have served as a NHMRC Grant Review Panel member and Assistant Chair, on the Health Research Council's Public Health Assessing Committee, and have refereed for national granting bodies of the UK, New Zealand, Canada, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

My research group includes several Level C academics and Post-doctoral Fellows. I supervise PhD and Masters students in public health and clinical psychology.

Languages

Greek

Fields of Research

Code

Description

Percentage

111700

Public Health And Health Services

75

160599

Policy And Administration Not Elsewhere Classified

25

Memberships

Body relevant to professional practice.

Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and drugs

Research Society on Alcoholism

Editorial Board.

Editor - Drug and Alcohol Review (Journal of Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and Drugs

Appointments

Fellow NHMRCSchool of Medicine and Public Health (Australia)

01/01/2009 - 01/12/2012

Fellow NHMRCSchool of Medicine and Public Health (Australia)

01/01/2013

MemberHealth Research Council Public Health Assessment Committee (New Zealand)

Dan Anderson Research AwardHazelden Foundation (United States)This is an annual award based on nomination and determination by an esteemed national committee and its winners have included many leading scientists in the addictions field. This is the first time the award has been won by someone from outside the USA.

2006

Early Career Researcher AwardAustralasian Professional Society on Alcohol and Drugs (Australia)

Collaboration

I have ongoing collaboration with leading researchers in Australia, USA, NZ, Canada, and the UK:

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (McCambridge), since 2007

Research program on Research Participation Effects. The partnership has produced substantial rewards, including a Wellcome Trust fellowship (McCaimbridge), ARC Discovery Project, NHMRC project, publications in high profile journals (e.g., NEJM, JNCI), and a growing awareness in various fields of the importance of systematically studying these phenomena.

Injury Prevention Research Unit, University of Otago (Langley, Connor): since 2004.

I lead the alcohol research conducted within the IPRU. The collaboration benefits from the combination of my expertise in the alcohol field and IPRU’s unique expertise with injury data. It has yielded >50 papers since 2004 and has had major impact on the research field and public policy.

Boston University School of Medicine (Saitz, Palfai), since 2006

I was the senior Australian investigator on a Center grant application (to NIH) for research on the prevention of adolescent risky drinking; have current projects with Saitz on the Australian HOAP trial (NHMRC), and with Palfai on e-SBI for cannabis (NIH)

Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, USA (Voas, Paschall), since 2003

Minimum Drinking Age project, funded by NIH. The collaboration produced papers in the American Journal of Public Health that continue to influence policy debate in several countries and the work has been the subject of international awards (eg, Giordis Postdoctoral Research Award, 2006) and invitations to give plenaries at international meetings.

Parent Alcohol and Teenage Health Outcomes Study, funded by ARC (2010-2014). I am a chief investigator on a large world first cohort study examining the effects of parental supply of alcohol on teenage drinking.

Teaching

Teaching keywords

Alcohol Policy

Health Behaviour

Teaching expertise

In my capacity as a part-time senior lecturer in the School of Medicine and Public Health, I taught modules in the following courses: Introduction to Health Promotion 2005-6, Health Promotion Strategy Selection 2004-6, as well as contributing to course development. I have given guest lectures in the School of Behavioural Sciences: Advanced Health Psychology 2004-6, and in the Bachelor of Medicine program in 2007.

As a research fellow at the University of Otago, while not employed to teach per se, I contributed to the teaching curriculum of the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine by giving guest Lectures in: Survey Methods 2003, Health Promotion 2001-3, Public Health 2003.

I am currently developing an undergraduate course on the psychology of alcohol and drug use

I was the scientific leader of this project, managed it, designed the study, wrote the competitive grant (National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, USA) led by Dr Voas, directed the analysis, and led the writing of the paper.
This study has had immense influence of policy debate in several countries. In New Zealand it featured prominently in discussion of a private member’s bill in 2006 to return the purchase age to 20 and in the 2009/10 comprehensive review of alcohol policy by the Law Commission. In Australia it served as part of the evidence base referred to by the Prime Minister in his suggestion that the drinking age be 21. Senior academics and government agencies in Australia have cited the study in the development of policy advice. In the USA, where there is a push for lowering the drinking age in several states, the study has been cited as evidence of the public health risk of such a change.
Journal ERA Rating: A*
Journal Impact Factor (2009): 4.4
Citations: >60 at June 2013

I was the scientific leader of this project which was one of my PhD studies. I managed the project, designed the intervention and the trial, wrote a competitive grant application (Health Research Council of NZ), implemented the trial implementation, conducted the analysis, and led the writing of the paper.
This paper was one of the first RCTs of a web-based alcohol intervention in a field that has grown massively since it was published. The paper is frequently cited in review articles and is described as methodologically rigorous. It has spawned successful competitive grants for larger trials, methodological studies, international awards (IVO), invited plenary presentations, and research collaborations.
Journal ERA Rating: A
Journal Impact Factor (2009): 3.8
Citations: >120 at April 2011

Contribution. I was the scientific leader of this project, managed it, designed the intervention and the trial, led the team which obtained a competitive grant (Health Research Council of NZ), oversaw the trial implementation, directed the analysis, and led the writing of the paper.
Impact. The paper has been the subject of local and international awards: a University of Newcastle VC’s Research Excellence Award in 2009, and the Hazelden Foundation’s Dan Anderson Award, to be presented in May 2010 in San Antonio, Texas. The findings gave rise to the THRIVE trial (Archives of Internal Medicine 169(16)1508-1514) and other international collaborations. On the basis of the research findings, the intervention was adopted as routine practice at university student health services in New Zealand (VUW, Otago) and Australia (UQ). The paper has been cited in several systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
Journal ERA Rating: A*
Journal Impact Factor (2009): 9.8
Citations: >30 at April 2011

Contribution. I was the scientific leader of this project, managed it, designed the intervention and the trial, led the team which obtained a competitive grant (Health Research Council of NZ), oversaw the trial implementation, directed the analysis, and led the writing of the paper.
Impact. The paper describes a ground-breaking methodological study and it has been widely cited. The study served as the basis of a highly productive collaboration with Dr Jim McCambridge of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and led to a systematic review and meta-analysis of assessment effects (currently under review). The work led to a successful ARC Discover Project grant awarded in 2009. In 2009, I proposed and chaired a symposium on assessment effects in addiction research at the prestigious annual conference of the Research Society on Alcoholism in San Diego.
Journal ERA Rating: A
Journal Impact Factor (2009): 4.4
Citations: >50 at April 2011

McCambridge J, Kypri K, Bendtsen P, Porter J, 'Deception in Research Is Morally Problematic ... and so too Is Not Using It Morally: Reply to Open Peer Commentaries on "The Use of Deception in Public Health Behavioral Intervention Trials: A Case Study of Three Online Alcohol Trials"', AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOETHICS, 14 W9-W12 (2014) [C3]

Said D, Kypri K, Bowman J, 'Risk factors for mental disorder among university students in Australia: findings from a web-based cross-sectional survey', SOCIAL PSYCHIATRY AND PSYCHIATRIC EPIDEMIOLOGY, 48 935-944 (2013) [C1]

Contribution. I was the scientific leader of this project, managed it, designed the intervention and the trial, led the team which obtained a competitive grant (Health Research Council of NZ), oversaw the trial implementation, directed the analysis, and led the writing of the paper.
Impact. The paper has been the subject of local and international awards: a University of Newcastle VC’s Research Excellence Award in 2009, and the Hazelden Foundation’s Dan Anderson Award, to be presented in May 2010 in San Antonio, Texas. The findings gave rise to the THRIVE trial (Archives of Internal Medicine 169(16)1508-1514) and other international collaborations. On the basis of the research findings, the intervention was adopted as routine practice at university student health services in New Zealand (VUW, Otago) and Australia (UQ). The paper has been cited in several systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
Journal ERA Rating: A*
Journal Impact Factor (2009): 9.8
Citations: >30 at April 2011

Contribution. I was the scientific leader of this project, managed it, designed the intervention and the trial, led the team which obtained a competitive grant (Health Research Council of NZ), oversaw the trial implementation, directed the analysis, and led the writing of the paper.
Impact. The paper describes a ground-breaking methodological study and it has been widely cited. The study served as the basis of a highly productive collaboration with Dr Jim McCambridge of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and led to a systematic review and meta-analysis of assessment effects (currently under review). The work led to a successful ARC Discover Project grant awarded in 2009. In 2009, I proposed and chaired a symposium on assessment effects in addiction research at the prestigious annual conference of the Research Society on Alcoholism in San Diego.
Journal ERA Rating: A
Journal Impact Factor (2009): 4.4
Citations: >50 at April 2011

Paschall MJ, Kypri K, Saltz RF, 'Friday class and heavy alcohol use in a sample of New Zealand college students', Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 67 764-769 (2006) [C1]

2006

Cunningham JA, Selby PL, Kypri K, Humphreys KN, 'Access to the Internet among drinkers, smokers and illicit drug users: Is it a barrier to the provision of interventions on the World Wide Web?', Medical Informatics and the Internet in Medicine, 31 53-58 (2006) [C1]

I was the scientific leader of this project, managed it, designed the study, wrote the competitive grant (National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, USA) led by Dr Voas, directed the analysis, and led the writing of the paper.
This study has had immense influence of policy debate in several countries. In New Zealand it featured prominently in discussion of a private member’s bill in 2006 to return the purchase age to 20 and in the 2009/10 comprehensive review of alcohol policy by the Law Commission. In Australia it served as part of the evidence base referred to by the Prime Minister in his suggestion that the drinking age be 21. Senior academics and government agencies in Australia have cited the study in the development of policy advice. In the USA, where there is a push for lowering the drinking age in several states, the study has been cited as evidence of the public health risk of such a change.
Journal ERA Rating: A*
Journal Impact Factor (2009): 4.4
Citations: >60 at June 2013

I was the scientific leader of this project which was one of my PhD studies. I managed the project, designed the intervention and the trial, wrote a competitive grant application (Health Research Council of NZ), implemented the trial implementation, conducted the analysis, and led the writing of the paper.
This paper was one of the first RCTs of a web-based alcohol intervention in a field that has grown massively since it was published. The paper is frequently cited in review articles and is described as methodologically rigorous. It has spawned successful competitive grants for larger trials, methodological studies, international awards (IVO), invited plenary presentations, and research collaborations.
Journal ERA Rating: A
Journal Impact Factor (2009): 3.8
Citations: >120 at April 2011

Injury Prevention Research - Co-ordination of alcohol research$27,040Funding Body: University of Otago

Modification and piloting of a web-based electronic screening and brief intervention (e-SBI) to reduce unhealthy drinking among hospital outpatients$12,391Funding Body: Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education